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I’ve just looked at flights from Heathrow to Athens next August for the three of us.
I was shocked to see economy fares for us three are £2257.37.
Alternatively I can burn 28,500 points and pay £405. As you can buy Avios for 0.092p each, I make that a real world cost of £667.20.
Does anyone know why the cash price is so high?
The avios / cash deal seems reasonable so I’m just surprised at such a large discrepancy
Tickets for next August will have only recebtly been released and then only the higher fare buckets get released and the cheaper ones follow in the following weeks.
This is nothing new.
Tickets for next August will have only recebtly been released and then only the higher fare buckets get released and the cheaper ones follow in the following weeks.
This is nothing new.
Thanks for the heads up.
I’m assuming that a cash . point purchase which I’m about to make will result in zero tier / avios points?
But that’ all good. i’M HAPPY ENOUGH WITH THE CURRENT DEAL.
Have you looked at Google flights to see how much they usually cost? But suspect £670ish for 3 with luggage is still a good price.
No TP or Avios on reward flights with BA not that you’d get many with cheapest Eco cash flights.
Also you can boost up to 300k at 0.092p but can’t normally buy Avios for that cost.
I’ve looked at budget airlines via Google for similar dates, yes.
We recently turned silver so can use the lounge and don’t have to worry about being over 23k luggage etc. So overall it seems good. I just couldn’t understand why their economy offering is so high right now.
Apologies, I was referring to boosting not purchasing! 🙂
QR has a 50% bonus offer on Avios purchasing. You might want to consider that.
In general, August is the super high season in Greece that makes our lives extremely difficult to book a flight (especially when someone has a family to travel with) with decent prices.Out of curiosity, have you considered booking a reward flight ticket to use up Avios instead?
Athens flights are always very expensive for cash I believe – I read that it is one of the challenges Virgin Voyages has faced in attracting passengers (Barcelona is similar though not quite as ridiculous)
Easyjet released their pricing today could be worth a look but otherwise I would snap up those Avios seats!
Out of curiosity, have you considered booking a reward flight ticket to use up Avios instead?
No because it doesn’t seem as economical to do so.
And I need to save plenty for long haul business class flights we want to take too. 🙂
QR has a 50% bonus offer on Avios purchasing. You might want to consider that.
In general, August is the super high season in Greece that makes our lives extremely difficult to book a flight (especially when someone has a family to travel with) with decent prices.Yes, I had an email about this very recently. I’ll take a look and see how it compares to boosting etc. Thanks.
Not very well it’s about 1.16p per point.
Greece in August will always be very expensive no matter when you book, but as others have pointed out, booking very early for cash isn’t a good idea as only the most expensive fares are available. It’s unlikely you’ll get a cheaper price over the course of the next year compared to the deal you can grab now with Avios, for peak season dates it’s also unlikely any more reward seats will be released as BA knows it can fly with a full house having sold the others for cold cash, so I say book this while you can.
You can cancel reward seat bookings for only £25 per person so if you spied a good cash deal later on this year, you can always book that and cancel the Avios booking (assuming it’s a reward seat booking and not a cash ticket with Avios used to reduce the cash price).
I have booked my outbound flight to Athens in club for next year`s Virgin Voyage Avios 9750
Payment Total GBP 82.50.A complete bargain compared to what others will be paying to fly in Business at that time of year. Probably cheaper than what most down the back will be paying too!
@Londonsteve that is ET 27,500 & £1 return. But chosen highest cash option.
CE would be 159,000 Avios + £ 99.00 all the way to 70,500 Avios + £ 657.00 for 3 tickets.
Athens flights have been rising steadily in price over the past few years. Greece is justifiably an increasingly popular destination with, in most places, little of the over tourism problems that have filled the pages of the press in recent months. From Heathrow, the flight will also have a large number of North Americans on connections.
Having said that, £2K+ is very high; more normal would be £400-500 plus baggage. I would grab the Avios seats while they are still available, as Athens is a destination that nearly always yields a great return on an Avios booking.
I would definitely consider CE if you can afford the extra, though. It’s a long flight to be down the back.
Would the saving be worth considering to book 2 of you on HBO and the one on the standard economy fare check in 2 x 32kg (or less if it’s not a really trip or anything?) The hand baggage allowance will still be pretty substantial for all three of you.
You’ll still be able to take a guest into the lounge and board together, though you would only be able to do free seat selection for the Silver pax, which of course might be a deal breaker!
Or mix and match cash & avios bookings and use some of the cash saving to pay for seats? Don’t forget you can book separate legs on short haul without the disproportionate charging you see on some long haul fares.
I booked the Avios / cash option as it appeared to be the best value.
I initially looked at booking CE but at £3,536.37 for two adults and one ten year old it seemed incredibly expensive compared to recent CE flights that we’ve booked lately hence me checking out ET pricing which also seemed very high for what it is!
I know some will disagree, but I’m not going to book CE with Avios / cash as status gives you a decent chunk of the CE benefits anyway being silver.
I started the thread as I just found pricing to Athens extraordinary compared to previous trips there. Anyway, thanks for all the replies. They’re helpful and informative.
And ironically, the flights have been booked for a cruise… Even more ironically I also need flights for another cruise departing Barcelona at a later date next year too (Someone mentioned both destinations in this context). Hopefully CE will be more reasonable when flights are released. 🙂
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